Last night and tonight are the two worst nights of the summer.  No baseball.

The second half of the season begins on Friday and the first half has been about starting pitching.  The brightest stars in the game are the guys toeing the rubber every five days.  Home runs are up in the first half of the season.  So are strikeouts.  Batting averages are down.

As we head in to the stretch drive, teams will have decide if they are contenders or pretenders.  We will have 13 days until the trade deadline to bolster your team for the final push to post season.  The most interesting team over the next week will be the Yankees.  Ownership in the Bronx has never been in the selling mode, but this year that might be the smart move.  They really don’t have a great starting rotation and if you saw a lineup that is trotted out, you wouldn’t recognize it.  Fireballing lefty reliever Aroldis Chapman is going to be a free agent at the end of the season.  I’d trade him along with outfielder Carlos Beltran and try to re-tool.  There will be plenty of suitors for both.

Everyone contending has holes.  The Cubs, who everyone thought would cruise to their first World Series title since 1908.  Chris and I have argued on the show as to how much you would be willing to part with to upgrade the bullpen and find another starter.  I said this is the year to go for it and I would be willing to part with the injured slugger Kyle Schwarber, who would probably fit better in the American League to get a reliever like Anthony Miller.  The Cubs are close, I would go all in.

The Giants and Nationals appear to best teams in the other NL divisions.  Both will be on the lookout help in the bullpen as well, which will drive up the price for relievers.  The Giants have a 6 1/2 game lead over the Dodgers in the West, and have been without three or four regulars throughout much of the first half.  If they can get infielders Matt Duffy and Joe Panik back as well as outfielder Hunter Pence, it will be like adding players at the deadline.

The team to watch in the NL in the second half is the Pirates.  They finished the first half strong and play a lot of the weaker teams after the break.  When glancing at their schedule there are a lot of “MIL” “CIN” and “PHI” on the list.  They will also get their ace Gerrit Cole back soon.

Over in the American League, there have been more surprises.  Cleveland and Baltimore are leading the Central and East.  I didn’t have either picked at the beginning of the season.  We’ll see if they have enough to hold on. Eleven of the 15 teams in the AL are within 5 1/2 games of a playoff spot.  Eight teams in the National League are within two games of a playoff spot in the National League.  Five make post season in each league.

Looking at the landscape in the NL, I think the three leaders – Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco – all win the division.  I think it will be LA and Pittsburgh in the wild card game.  Over in the AL, I think Toronto and Boston catch Baltimore and one is the division winner and the other is a wild card.  Texas holds on in the West and I would think Cleveland holds on in the Central.  If the all star game is any indication, I think Kansas City isn’t finished yet.  So I’ll take the Royals to slide in as the second wild card.

It’s a marathon.  Injuries, trades, and who stays hot will decide things.  It’s still a long way to October.